state. we'll continue to stay on top of the story. >> what we're going to do is take you to new york. here is diane sawyer with a look at word news and we'll be right back past their break. this is a special edition of with "world news tonight." blasting the east coast. winds gusting to 86 miles per hour. a crane blown off a skyscraper. the incredible images from americans under siege and entire towns underwater. a house collapsing and a pier crumbling and the dramatic story of the ship that sailed into the heart of sandy battling 18-foot waves until it capsized and sank. a passenger saw a heroic helicopter pilot coming to save them and new york city watching the waters rise. the busiest city in america, landmark like a ghost town and on this night when 60 million americans are feeling the

effects of hurricane sandy, the abc news team is out in force in every corner of the storm. tonight, the moment it crashes on land, our team in the storm zone bringing you what's happening at this hour as "world news" begins. >> this is a special edition of the world news with diane sawyer. good evening and welcome to the one-hour edition of world news and as we come on the air, it is happening right now, hurricane sandy crashing on the shore wins at 90 miles an hour and this storm is so big, so vast, 60 million americans will feel its power. tonight the extrema weather team is all over the storm and ready to report so let's go to meteorologist ginger who is in the bull's-eye of the storm that is hitting the shore

and atlantic city new jersey. gender? >> reporter: we are essentially inside the storm it is to our south and the threshold of hurricanes one of the worst storms of has had atlantic city the city is basically underwater and the water from the ocean, water from the bay, it is everywhere. this is a storm that we forecasted and then some. >> it is chaos along the jersey shore. the super storm battering of the islands. in the crosshairs, atlantic city. the road and to this is completely submerged. damage started early, massive chunks of boardwalk littering the streets. street after avenue after cul-de-sac, inundated. >> we went to see the upstairs

neighbors in case the water started going up into our house, we have our can aware going to snuggle down and hope for the best. >> once they peek at hide tide, they can grow to 20 feet, and up to 40 feet. >> look at this, all of the winds have picked up and this is what happens, pieces of the boardwalk have been distributed for three blocks. that is the ocean back their huge waves up and over, do you see that? it is on top of us right now. >> reporter: it is aligned -- it is going to get worse during the next high tide. where mac this is taking shelter, what you're saying right now, that is what we are doing, one of the safest and driest places this will be an historic storm for so many but the storm surge is 90 minutes away from high tide and we will have many more pictures throughout the broadcast but for now, we will head back to diane. >> thank you, gender. we will be checking back in with you throughout this one-hour broadcast . this is the view from above,

the super storm stretching across one third of this country from florida to canada. 1000 miles long delivering the damage once every century flood waters rising for hours to, as ginger said and stormed champion is reporting from lower manhattan about ready to be had. sam? >> reporter: sam -- diane i am standing water in new york harbor is over the edge and we are standing and it. this is just what are the just washed up and you know, before i came to abc news i covered new york weather for 25 years and i have never seen water in lower manhattan and there is water on the streets in lower manhattan. let's show you where the storm is going to make it smooth. once it is now i'm sure, let's follow this it is difficult to see where the center of the storm is that it is practically on the jersey shore line and the storm continues to be a problem once it is on sure. stepping into the pennsylvania border by the time we get to

tuesday. since tuesday, almost it all day tuesday, i will spend a pennsylvania and wednesday, almost all day wednesday into thursday and western new york state, each one of those areas will have tropical storm wind gusts and heavy rain and flooding to be delivered with the storm and it was an amazing little surprise that sandy had in store for us at last minute, like sprinting for the finish line, sandy made a motion straight for e jersey shore line almost doubling its speed. >> the east coast is being pummeled with the power of a record- breaking superstar. >> oh my god, it is watching everything away. 90-mile per hour winds, driving rain, record-breaking high tides and rough surf across the c oastline. as the storm made landfall in southern new jersey, the the mid-atlantic in southern new england shores, hit hard by flooding. water lapping at the doors and

piled up high on the boardwalk and in new york city a construction crane buckled, dangling and high winds and raises a concern of other construction sites. closed bridges, tunnels, and doubled in number of national guard troops deployed. north carolina has been founded by sandy for over 50 hours and rose have been washed away and this house has been swept into pieces. throughout the day, sandy was breaking records and had one big surprise, doubling its speed and barreling towards the shore faster than anyone expected. up and down the east coast, residents were warned to stay home and take mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas, seriously. >> this is not a time to be stupid, this is a time to save yourself and your family. >> public transportation for 12 million people will shut down a new york, philadelphia and washington dc. concerns don't ease after sandy's landfall. more than a million people in 11 states are without power and as

many as 10 million may lose electricity as the storm pushes inland. >> reporter: this is a record surge of water, diane, we are witnessing right now. as you can see on the outer side of new york harbor cop out of the superlatives, the larger storms in new jersey, it is about 8 feet in this water is rushing over the edge of lower manhattan and if you think this storm was just new jersey coast, those lands were about 90 miles an hour on the shore but we also had an 86-mile per hour wind gusts as far north as the rhode island coast. diane? >> sam, we will be checking back in with you as well and now we go to delaware. as you heard sam say an estimated 10 million people are at risk of losing power and we ask them to tell us what is happening there and how fast. david question mark. >> good evening, diane, you can take a look at some of these ways back here, it is an angry ocean and it was going to be up on this

boardwalk here but i want to tell you about the one thing we have been keeping an eye on, does this lamppost and these lights are still on still electricity. so a million and a quarter people without power already. we will have more about what will happen to them in the coming hours, diane. >> okay, david, good to check in with you to go to long beach new york because long beach builds a wall of sand as a defense against the ocean and abc's ron claiborne is there to tell us how that is going. ron? >> reporter: a good evening, diane, that's wall of sand that they built along the shore, held out for quite a while but if you look over my shoulder, it is all a blur. it. the pounding surf and the rising time -- tied to good tied to get out, the erosion in the wind is gone and now water is flowing from the beach into the city of 35,000 a suburb of new york city and they're expecting a storm surge of somewhere between 4 feet in 8 feet and it is possible this entire low-lying barrier island will be overflowed with water and the

next 12 hours or so, diane? >> okay, wrong, and as you heard the water is flooding into new york city and it is where we are tracking the national damage and the wind bearing down on the city's skyscrapers tonight. 2020 anchor chris, i'll is covering this city in this storm. chris? >> hello, diane we wish we did not have to be standing in the water but it is moving too quickly to change positions. we have had more water from sandy than we did last year from irene. we are being told that p rotectively, they're going to shut off power downhill since so have everybody has gotten somewhere safe and sandy is coming the question i s, how will new york city handle it? >> the big apple has been shut down to its core. lower manhattan looks like a ghost town at wall street will be closed for consecutive days because of weather for the first time since the 18 hundreds. and place we have to look up to

see were many people live, spiked scrapers are a concern and wind speeds on the ground or half of those of those on the top floors sometimes forcing buildings to s way. >> the further up you live, the re reason you should close your dreams and just stay away from windows. >> reporter: watched the bath water sloshing a brooklyn high- rise in gusts of barely 40 miles an h our, half of what is expected by sandy. at ground zero still under construction special precautions as teams worked at two get machinery tied down and fears heightened by 10-ton steel arm dangling from a high-rise building the main threat from sandy is a storm surge, not just letting the surge effect his with a look at vista powered by 80-mile an hour winds. sandy brings potential in extra six to 12 feet of sea and river flow that could fill low-lying areas of manhattan like a basin and 375,000 people in the potential flood zone have been told to evacuate, directed to 76 shelters around the

city. but this is new york. and that means there are others that are deciding to stick. >> people want to stay put, people definitely want to come, we will find some for that we can figure swim together and this is the community of new york city. >> reporter: this is no joking matter, diane we're two hours from the full moon high tide so we don't know what to sandy will bring. 70 miles southeast of here a buoy, measured a wave of 29 feet, still 70 miles away but it shows that it is no joking matter. hopefully tomorrow we will be able to say sandy was not as bad as expected but for right now, we ask everyone to please prepare for the worst. >> all right chris reporting and here, in new york it is the second strange storm, second year in a r ow. 14 months ago you may have remembered this was hurricane irene living in the by comparison, now hurricane sandy is twice as

big. and here is another sign that sandy is like no hurricane we have seen. as it hit charleston west virginia tonight, the cold front moving in, dumps snow. a blizzard of snow. expected to dump up to 3 feet of snow, hurricane of snow in the southern appalachian mountains. and the turbulence of hurricane sandy has shaken the white house eight days until the americans go to the polls and will voice your vote and today president obama and governor romney put the brakes on the campaign until sandy is tamed. >> reporter: president obama was a no-show to his own rally in orlando florida this morning. whist away on air force one to get ahead of the worst of hurricane sandy and to warn those in its p ath. >> when they tell you to evacuate, you need to evacuate. >> reporter: the white house eager to show the president looking and command released to photographs of him eating with advisers preparing for the storm. between his campaign and that

romney had been canceled. two events went on without the president including one in youngstown ohio where former president clinton and vice president biden got a first- hand feel for the storm's winds. heavy wind and rain impacted early voting in ohio and other contested states, directly in the storm's path including two that also have early in-person voting. >> as analogous and is not scheduled to be back on the campaign trail until wednesday but that is subject to cancellation. diane? >> all right, jake. thank you and coming-of-age or medically story, hurricane sandy sings a mighty ship, survivors pulled from the open ocean, one was washed away. the search, tonight. abc news with diane sawyer, brought to you by allied bank. >>

>> you are looking imagine

dramatic footage of hurricane sandy, blowing ashore. look at past that water is moving and again, wins have been gusting many miles an hour, even 100 miles per hour and one can't fully watch this storm and south of atlantic city earlier today and it called credible drama unfolded as the replica of a 200 -year-old ship sailed into the raft of the

storm it battled 18-foot waves until the ship went down and the passengers huddled onto a small raft and 40-mile per hour winds and incredibly brave helicopter pilots came to the rescue and we have that story in north carolina. >> reporter: with 50 miles per hour winds and fuel-burning past the first dive is lowered into the unknown. you can see here the crew bobbing and waist high water faces poking out. rescued slimmer, dan todd, one of today's heroes. >> i jumped enter nice that i am dan and i heard you need a ride. >> pulling the survivors from the water, swimming to the helicopter the pilot fighting to hold steady at 30 feet. survivors of wasted up one at a time. >> you have 20 or 30-foot waves hitting you from different sides. and then we went straight over

to the next raft that has three more people >> reporter: 14 people total crossing the mountainous waves and a to our flight back to the land. >> as we left the scene, i am getting emotional, realizing that they had left shipmates behind. >> two sailors are still missing. this chopper is going back to look. this was featured in mutiny on the ballot and pirates of the c aribbean, look at the ship pitching torturously in this video taken aboard two years ago on the ships captain faced the game that the ship is safer that see the network but the ship loses a generator and the bounty, taking on water, the crew has abandoned ship and human corpses are bobbing 100 miles from shore and not the only ones, passengers on the disney fantasy cruise, heaped around, water sloshing over the decks, doors slamming, terrified passengers told to stay in their rooms. >> yes, stan your cabinets. >> the coast guard told us

moments ago they went back out to sea and managed to find one of the two missing people and tried to revive the woman who was unresponsive and the captain of the bounty, diane, is still missing at sea. >> thank you, matt, this story makes clear all over the storm is on their our current -- courageous people willing to risk their lives to keep everyone safe as hurricane sandy bears down and i will introduce you to others as weak come back. i will introduce you to others as they come back. >> >> only your doctor ceter if yourn is actually something more serious like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach acid can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only provides 24-hour heartburn relief, but can also help heal acid-related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

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as the rising water is visible in atlantic as the rising waters are visible in atlantic city, under the dark sky, as many as 85,000 citizen shoulders, we are told and airmen are ready to respond, fly in and help their neighbors in the storm and among those standing watch in new york are dedicated scuba diving response team taking on huge waves in the darkness to save anyone needs help. 14-year veteran terrence sullivan is one of them and he joined me today at the waters edge. >> this is going to be five to 10 feet swells i am assuming. so if someone falls in the water our jobs in the water we are going to respond and get them out. >> during irene did you have to pull anyone out? >> kayakers off of staten island. >> kayakers? >> once this takes off, you

can't go against it. you can't beat it. you can't fight a. >> you going to rescue people out of their cars? >> unfortunately people are still driving at what is going to happen, once the water comes back up that will be higher than it was earlier today and is going to get dark and they will call 911. >> give me a sense of being in a 25 of that wave and scuba gear, how many pounds is that scuba? >> it is 6 pounds worth of scuba gear, scuba tank, weight belt. >> do we say anything to each other on this kind of night? >> whatever we do, we have to make sure nobody gets hurt today. >> what you say to them? >> i'm not going to lie to you, my wife was not happy had to go to work today and i probably won't be going home tonight. i will see her in a few days, that is about it. >> by the way, you could not see it weren't there but as we were standing there, the statue of

liberty was in the distance and i asked the sergeant about that, it has been closed down because of the hurricane and he said, she has never been tested this way and we don't want to lose the statue t oday. we will let you know what happens tonight. and when we come back, the latest on the storm battering the east coast. >> dch a burning sensation until i had the shingles. i remember it well. i was in the back yard doing yard work. i had this irritation going on in my lower neck. i changed shirts because i thought there was something in the collar of the shirt irritating my neck. and i couldn't figure out what was going on. i had no idea it came from chickenpox. i always thought shingles was associated with people...

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take a look at that. it is water pouring in from the take a look at that, wate pouring in from the beach, flooding a cape may new jersey and now we want to go back to the weather editor sam champion for the latest on the storm. sam, you are in lower manhattan right now? >> yes, diane, good evening, i am in the harbor, new york harbor as the water continues to come o nshore. here, in battery park, we picked up another 6 inches, maybe then i have to foot of storm surge water and it is still coming and we have an hour and a half before the high tide cycle and let's show you where this storm is going now that it has found its home along the shoreline. we believe the storm will come across southern new jersey and run

the border of pennsylvania right there, with delaware, and park itself there for a little while. during the day tomorrow, it will still have strong tropical storm force winds and plenty of reynaud does not exit the us until probably friday or saturday. >> okay sam thank you, i think i can see that water up to your knees right now i want to tell those of you, some of you were saying good night for the rest of you, we're going to take a short break and be back with the rest of our special one-hour broadcast of world news. please stay with us. >>